The game is better now (except in the current Halloween event, because IMC is amazing like that), but it’s definitely not great yet, it’s not enough yet. People still regularly get random freezing, disconnections, desync, lag, etc…
I believe SEA servers still are pretty populated, SA as well, for EU/NA, Klaipeda stays the most populated one, but even then, it’s been becoming more empty.
Not really. There isn’t anything that can only be achieved only by spending money, but charging makes it all much faster and easier, of course… There are a lot of silver sinks on TOS, you need a lot of silver for all kinds of important stuff (buying mats to upgrade you gear, enhancing, attributes…), but IMC keeps slowing down our ways to farm silver. So it’s easier if you cash and sell your premium stuff on the market. Or if you RMT, I guess.
I can’t really answer that for you… You need to test it yourself and see if you like it.